Remarketing: One of the Most Cost Effective Forms of Digital Advertising

Ever feel like your favorite products are following you? Around the Internet, I mean. When you see the novelty cookie jar you passed up on appear in ads outside of its product page, it isn’t a sign from the online shopping gods. It’s remarketing. A good remarketing campaign is a really, really simple way to maintain brand exposure and visibility after a person leaves your website. Want proof? Okay, you twisted my arm.

To understand how remarketing can drastically improve your company’s ROI, you have to first understand its wonderfully simple process.

Step 1: A potential or returning client visits your website. This could be the result of a referral or a direct visit. Good job!

Step 2: A cookie is dropped on their browser. This is done by placing a remarketing script within your page’s header files. If you’re familiar with Google Analytics and AdWords, this is relatively easy to implement.

Step 3: The client leaves your website. Maybe they purchased something. Maybe they didn’t. Either way, this is where you get to say, “You haven’t seen the last of us!”

Step 4: The client visits another website that uses the Google Display Network. (Virtually every major website and advertiser does.) A few of the most common? Microsoft, Honda, Urban Outfitters, HBO, etc.

Step 5: Your chosen ads will appear. It could be a product they already looked at or a custom-designed promotion. These ads can be changed based on a number of filters. Your client’s age, location and viewing history will help dictate which advertisement appears as they surf the web.

Step 6: Your brand will be forged into their memory and your products will get a second, third or fourth chance to be purchased. “That’s the pair of shoes I almost bought! It must be fate!” What they call fate, as they make their online purchases, you’ll call smart remarketing.

So, besides remarketing having a higher percentage of ROI, why is it so important? The simple answer is brand recognition. With brand recognition comes one of the most important factors to earning and keeping clients – trust. Major brand names are major brand names for a reason. Commercials, billboards, print and online advertisements solidify their positions as leaders of their industry. (They can afford all these ads, so they must be doing something right, right?)

Whether you want your brand to be a household name locally, nationally or worldwide, remarketing is an invaluable tool for doing so. Want even more good news? Anyone who uses Google Analytics and AdWords can do this! It has, and continues to, work wonders for our clients. So what are you waiting for? Your remarketing campaigns await!

If you’re a visual learner, check back soon for a step-by-step (with screenshots) of team Leadhub implementing an actual remarketing campaign.

Aaron graduated from Texas State University with a degree in Communication Studies and a minor in Business Administration. His passion for digital marketing developed while toiling in the sun at his first college job, where he built ranch fences and character. Today, he has over 11 years of digital marketing experience and puts the LEAD in Leadhub. His strengths in SEO and PPC, coupled with his love for teaching and working with others, have helped shape the culture and values at Leadhub.